Showing Enterprise - Thinking creatively


Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Lesson 7

Lesson Objectives

Know the importance of creating thinking
Understand that having creative ideas is a key aspect to setting up a new business and developing a competitive advantage
Be able to use six thinking hats to explore the crafty coffee model

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Create a mindmap of YOUR enterprise ideas, however silly some of them seem they might lead you to a thought that makes you that first million!

Starter (5 mins)

What is the Added Value to Starbucks opening on Canvey Island?

Key Words (5 mins)

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Activity (5 mins)

Read through the information below

Thinking Creatively
Lots of businesses copy ideas which may not be enough to create a successful business. A franchise is also a copy of an idea. Thinking creatively means coming up with a new idea and developing that unique idea to create a competitive advantage. A competitive advantage is not easily copied but means that a business is better in at least one way than its competitors. Examples of how a business might have competitive advantage could be:
  • A better product
  • Better production, resulting in lower costs or better quality
  • Better than rivals at selling
  • Gives better customer service
  • Uses a unique technology or service in production
  • A unique product or service


Deliberate Creativity
Most creative thinking happens accidentally and often these ideas are not used in an organised way. Using different methods of thinking techniques to stimulate ideas is deliberate creativity.

Lateral thinking - is about producing ideas that would not come up in the normal thought process by thinking “outside the box” and using other techniques that promote lateral thinking.

Blue skies thinking - working individually you would start with an idea, object or question then write down anything that pops into your mind whilst looking/thinking about it. After a set time or when everyone has run out of ideas you analyse your ideas to work out which are important, what could be used to move your idea forward etc.



Task (10 mins)
Take the single idea the Mrs Evans gives you and write down every idea that pops into your head. After 5 minutes we will consolidate and work out which ideas are important


Activity (5 mins)

Read through the information below

Six thinking hats - this is a technique that helps you organise and focus ideas you have come up with. A group tries each hat in turn to flesh out their ideas
  • White hat - explores the facts
  • Red hat - looks at emotions and gut feelings
  • Black hat - evaluates the problems and difficulties of an idea
  • Yellow hat - sees the positives of the idea
  • Green hat - the creative approach to getting round problems, maximising benefits
  • Blue hat - thinking about thinking, the facilitator driving the process will be blue hat thinking, everyone in a group will be involved in blue hat thinking at the start looking at what they want to achieve and at the end

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Task ( 30 mins)


Jane is looking to use her two passions for crafting and coffee drinking to start her business "crafty coffee:

Crafty Coffee is a new idea which brings together the current trend for crafts and workshops with a premium coffee shop. The business will be located in a village full of antique centres and the premises consist of a converted stable which is split into two rooms.

The coffee shop room will be packed with sofas, books and sells a range of premium coffees together with pannini's/sandwiches and a range of home made cakes. The craft workshop is equipped with tables, sewing machines and a wide range of craft materials. There are scheduled classes each day/evening for specific crafts, often run by specialists in a field (such as jewellery making, glass fusing, machine embroidery, dressmaking).

There will be a large glass window between the two so that the customers enjoying a coffee will see the workshops taking place and may be tempted to sign up for some. They will be kept as separate rooms to prevent the noise from the workshops disturbing customers enjoying a relaxing coffee.
The coffee shop will also serve as a meeting place for crafty groups such as knitting groups, sewing groups etc.

Employ 6 hat thinking to Jane's business idea - work in pairs/groups..


Plenary (10 mins)

Could you apply six hat thinking to your schoolwork? Write a quick plan to show how you could use this when planning an essay.....